Triaxial testing facility: Transition rock under pressure

The new triaxial facility at the Institute of Rock Mechanics and Tunneling is used to test transitional rocks. Lunghammer - TU Graz - By Birgit Baustädter - Neither hard like stone, nor soft like soil: transition rock is important for almost every construction project, but difficult to study. But this is now possible at the TU Graz. Transition rock is soft rock and hard soil; it is inhomogeneous, anisotropic and brittle. "This material can be found almost everywhere where building activities are undertaken. And especially in tunnelling," explains Thomas Marcher, head of the Institute of Rock Mechanics and Tunnelling at Graz University of Technology. Until now, the geotechnical properties of this rock have only been determined in detail in a few laboratories throughout Europe - for example at ETH Zurich and RWTH Aachen.